Close Encounters of the Sonic Kind Chapter 1: The Comet It was early morning and the sun has just begun to cast shadows over the horizon. Rotor was watching a strange object burn its way across the starless sky. Sonic came up to him. "Hey, what's up?" Rotor turned to him, pointing to his telescope. "There's a comet or something up there." Sonic looked into the eyepiece. "Whoa, I see two of 'em, and they're HUGE!" Rotor looked into the sky and watched one of the pieces hurtle toward the ground in the direction of the Great Swamp. As it disappeared below the trees a distant rumble echoed through the air. The second piece had turned toward them and looked like a second sun in the sky. Rotor's eyes grew large. "I've never seen a comet do that before. It'll go right over us." The burning mass grew larger and the sound of it splitting the air was intense. "Oh man, look at that thing!" Sonic yelled as the massive fireball glided over them. The heat from the object was hotter than the sun itself. Pieces of hot debris landed in the river hissing and popping as they went. Some landed on the ground leaving burn marks on the earth. The body of the comet faded away and again a distant rumble could be heard, growing softer until it was silent again. "We've gotta check that out!" Sonic told Rotor. Rotor looked at a still glowing piece of the comet. "Maybe we should give it a chance to cool off first. Besides, the others are asleep and they'll want to see it too." "Did you take any pictures?" Sonic asked Rotor. "I sure did, and they should look better than the view through the telescope. I'll go develop them now." Sonic looked at a plume of smoke rising above the trees and went to wake the others. After breakfast Sonic, Rotor, and the others began walking toward the still visible plume of smoke. They came to a clearing in the forest. The ground was gouged out in a thirty-foot wide half pipe and the surrounding trees were scorched and smoldering. "This is unreal," Sally said, "it looks like the comet skidded along the ground, digging this trench as it went." "I wonder how far it goes?" Sonic replied. "We should measure it." "I'm already on it," Rotor answered. They couldn't see very far, as the ground was hot and steaming, creating a heavy fog. Bunnie stopped suddenly and stared at the ground. "Hey, y'all lookit what I found." Sonic ran over. He stopped in amazement. Lying there on the ground was a massive steel ring about fifty feet wide, scorched and twisted with jagged bits of wire and metal hanging from it. Further ahead there were other pieces of debris, including two large curved doors with the hinges still attached. "What do you make of all this stuff?" Sonic asked Sally. "I don't know, but whatever it was, it was big." Just then Bunnie, who had gone up ahead, yelled out. "Hey, guys, I think y'all better come an' see this!" "Oh my gosh!" Sally said. "Whoa, man!" Sonic replied. "Uhhhhh, that wasn't a comet," Rotor followed. In front of them was a fifty foot high wall of mangled steel. Another one of those rings was half torn out of the wreckage and a large oval shaped door, about six feet high could be seen beyond that, over thirty feet above the ground. Live electrical wires sparked as they swung over the twisted metal. "We're not getting in that way," Bunnie said. "You want to go inside?" Sally asked. Bunnie replied, "Nope, I just thought that's what y'all were thinkin'." As they walked around to the front of the wreck, Rotor measured its length. "275 feet before it tapers off into the nose." There was a large triangle-shaped fin on the left side, one on the top, and the one on the right was hanging by its cables and hydraulic lines, creaking gently as it swayed in the breeze. The entire surface was charred black and still very hot to the touch. There was a large windshield that wrapped around the top side of the nose like that of a jetliner. Sally stared at the side and saw a rectangular cutout near the windshield; maybe it was a door. As she looked around for some way up she noticed a very large footprint on the ground, nearly twice the size of her own foot. She jumped back, startled. "What's the matter, Sal?" Sonic asked. "Nothing," Sally told him, her voice cracking. There was a large tree that had fallen on top of the wreck and Sonic helped Sally get to the top. As she looked into the windshield she could see a box hanging by its wires. One corner had a red tint to it. Further back in the cockpit there was an open door. She could see deeper into the ship, but beside that door was the single most frightening thing she had ever seen in her life. A single bloody handprint, larger than any she had seen before, but the terrifying thing was the fifth finger on it. Sally staggered back almost falling off the nose of the wreck. "What do you see, Sally?" Rotor yelled. "Nothing, it.... It's too dark to see anything," she replied. "C'mon, Sal, we've got a three mile walk back to Knothole," Sonic yelled. "And I'm hungry." "I'll be right down," Sally replied, and they began the walk home. When they returned to Knothole, Sir Charles was waiting for them. "Uncle Chuck," Sonic said, "You won't believe what we found. There's a rocket or somethin' in the woods about three miles from here!" "I know, Sonic. Listen to this. It was picked up by one of Robotnik's satellites," Charles said as he handed Sonic a data disc. Sonic gave the disc to Sally and she put it into Nicole. The static was terrible, but they could still make out the words: "Houston, we are entering low orbit and preparing to launch the lander, all systems are go," a rough voice said. They could only hear one end of the conversation. The rest was severely distorted. "Roger that, Houston, we are go for launch in five, four, three, two, Ahhhhh!" The transmission was scrambled and breaking up. "Houston, something hit us! I repeat, we have struck an... in the upper atmosphere the instruments are lighting up like a ... mas tree. We are going down, I have no engine power... flying dead...repeat I am flying.. stick ... no power ... no engine readings... the lander is ... pray for us!" "Whoa, that's incredible," Sonic said. Sally stood there in silence. "It's not over yet," Sir Charles replied, as the static faded away the same rough voice returned, "Houston... I am alive; the others are nowhere to be found... The ship is split at the cargo bay. The lander must have fallen out. I'm going to search for them..." The recording continued, "Not too badly, just a cut on my head and I'm a little rattled up, but I'm fine. I'll walk it off. I'll report back to you as soon as I learn something. It looks like I'm gonna be here for a while." "Does Robotnik know about this?" Sally asked. "No, I kept it a secret since I was monitoring the satellites at the time," Charles said. "Good, then he won't try to find this thing. That gives us a chance to get to him first," Sonic told the others. "We'll probably have to watch that wreck and see if he comes back." "Are you sure that's a good idea?" Bunnie asked. "He's not gonna be in a very good mood if he finds out we've been watchin' him." For the next few days Sonic and the other's chased reports of some unknown intruder being spotted in and around Robotropolis. They had all but given up, when Sally saw a lone shadow dash into a nearby factory. Sally and the others chased the figure into the factory and had almost caught up when six of Robotnik's massive robots attacked, blocking the exit and ending the search. Sonic and the others dashed into a nearby air duct and began to climb out of the factory, when a mechanical claw sliced the elevated tunnel in half, leaving Sally, who had been lagging behind, stranded on one side of the tunnel. Sonic turned just in time to see the tunnel and Sally fall to the ground below, burying her in a mound of twisted wreckage. There was nothing he could do. As the robots came toward them they ran down the tunnel to safety, regretfully leaving Sally behind. "I'm gonna kill that black-hearted, evil, wicked..." Sonic yelled in rage. "I shoulda went back and thrashed those hunks of scrap! I could've saved Sal!" The others tried to hide their grief and at the same time calm Sonic down, but he simply went to his home and slammed the door. At the same time Sally regained consciousness. Through her blurry vision she could see a black mass hovering over her. "Sonic?..." she moaned as the shadow drifted toward her, and there was silence. For the next few days, Sonic and the others searched the factory for Sally, but she was nowhere to be found. The place where she had fallen left little clues to her whereabouts. A pool of blood on the ground where she had been buried by the debris, but no trail showing them where she had gone. Sir Charles told them that she had not been captured and that the shadowed figure had disappeared as well. Now they had a lead. That person had kidnapped Sally and was hiding her. Sonic decided to check the wreck again, this time more thoroughly. The wreck looked different this time. The loose wires had been tied together and the ends covered up. There was a tree bracing the loose fin on the right side and footprints all around it. Sonic was startled by the size of this person's shoes, nearly twice the size of his own. "Sonic, you better come see this!" Rotor yelled. A long rope ladder was hanging from the spot where Sally had jumped back; there was a rectangular door in the side of the ship and an open panel to the left. Sonic climbed the ladder and looked at the panel. All the buttons had been burned out, but the circuitry was intact. "Hey, Sonic!" Bunnie hollered. "Y'all gonna come down or what?" "Hold on a minute, I found something," he said. He looked at the panel and slammed his fist against it. No way in, he thought. The surprise that was waiting for them at Knothole was a shock to them all. Sally was sitting at their computer. She greeted them with a smile. "Hi, Sonic," she began. "You might want to be careful." As she turned around in the chair they all could see that she had been injured. "Sal..." Sonic said, "where have you been, and what happened to you?" Sally's right leg and arm had been bandaged, as well as her stomach. There was a crude wooden crutch leaning against the wall. She said, "After the air duct collapsed and I was buried, someone came and dug me out. At first I thought it was you, but I passed out before I could really see well." "Then who rescued you, Sally-girl?" Bunnie asked. Sally started again. "It's a long story, but you can meet him soon. I told him you were trying to find him, and he is interested in meeting all of you." "HIM?!?" Sonic gasped. The others were in shock as well. Sally simply replied, "I'm tired. Can we talk about this tomorrow? There's a lot you need to know before we can do this." "Sure, Sal," Sonic said, happy to have her back. Close Encounters of the Sonic Kind Chapter 2: Sally's Story Sally awoke the next day, surrounded by her friends. She had slept almost the entire day and was still tired, but the others wanted to hear what she had to say. Especially Sonic who had stayed awake the entire night watching her, and waiting until she woke up. "I guess I'll start with the accident in the factory, and go from there," she said. "After the air duct collapsed and I was buried, someone came and got me out of the wreckage. I thought it was Sonic, but the figure was blurred and I wasn't able to see him. I passed out from the loss of blood and don't remember anything after that. I started to hear voices. They echoed and I couldn't understand what they were saying entirely, just bits and pieces." "Well, what did you hear?" Bunnie asked. "Was it our language, or something different?" "I'll get to that," Sally replied. "At first I could only hear pieces of it. He talked to a person named Houston a lot. Sometimes he would talk about me." "What do you mean talk about you?" Sonic interrupted. "He told this Houston person about where he found me and that he did to save me." Sally continued. "He was going to 'have a better look at me' if I didn't survive. I didn't know what that meant until he told me." "What did it mean, Sally?" Rotor said. "It meant that he was going to cut me open and see what was inside me," Sally told him. "Oh man, this guy's an animal!" Sonic yelled. "I didn't think so," Sally said. "It was this Houston person that told him to do it, but he wasn't going to anyway." "Whew!" Sonic sighed. Sally continued. "I was laying in a bed about seven feet long in a small room that was decorated with some bizarre pictures of big machines and different types of vehicles. The door was partially open and when I tried to move out of it a box with a green line that moved would go off. I later learned that there was a wire that hooked me to that box and monitored my heart. One day, I woke up and the box was gone. It was really quiet outside the room so I decided to take a look around. I used the wall to lean on and worked my way to the door. As I got closer I heard a beeping that sounded like Nicole. Then a voice said, 'Not exactly user friendly, are you?' I fell against the door and it creaked open. I stayed against the wall as I heard footsteps coming toward me. He opened the door the rest of the way and rolled a chair into the room. Then he walked away. My legs began to hurt so I grabbed the chair and sat down. I couldn't see him from where I was but he knew I was there. 'You can come out, I won't hurt you,' he said. I believed him, and pushed against the wall, rolling myself through the door." "What did you see?" Sonic said in an impatient voice. He wanted to get to meeting this person for himself. "He was sitting in a chair like mine, on the other side of a large room. He looked horrible; not really ugly, just very badly beaten-up. He had a dirty, bloody, bandage wrapped around his left leg that went from his knee to his boot, another bandage around his right arm that covered up most of his hand and arm, and another around his head that covered one of his eyes and ears. He was about six feet tall, wearing a dark blue jumpsuit that was torn up. He looked a lot like Robotnik, but not as fat and he had a kind face with brown hair and brown eyes. What was really strange was that he had five fingers on his hands and not four like us, but nothing else was that different. The first thing he told me was his name, Commander James Wester of the Explorer, and I told him who I was, he stood up, bowed, and said, 'Forgive me, Princess, I did not know you were royalty.' I told him that was all right, and I wanted to be called Sally. He said I could call him whatever I wanted to. He told me that there were two others besides him but they were in another part of the ship and died. It didn't seem to upset him too much. He told me that was because they were supposed to go down to the surface and he was to fly around and wait for them to come back up instead of going down with them like he was told he would. "We talked for a very long time. He said that I had been out for five days and that he had been on Mobius for two weeks." "Does he know about us fighting Robotink?" Sonic asked. Sally said, "Yes, and he wants to help out any way he can, since there is no chance of him going home. I told him that he could use our technology to build another ship if he could. He said that would not be possible." "He's a commander, right? Does that mean he's the one in charge?" Sonic said. "No, he is commander of the mission, to our world but he takes orders from his superiors in Houston, a big city on his world," Sally told him. "Well, how far away does this ol' boy live?" Bunnie asked. "His world and ours follow the same path around the sun, but they stay on opposite sides of it, so we never see each other. They found our world by accident when they launched a probe to the fourth planet, Mars, and took a picture of the sun, them, and us from it." "So when do we get to meet him?" Sonic asked. "We can go there tomorrow. That way we'll have the whole day to talk. There's a lot more I want to know about the world he comes from," Sally answered. "Besides he still has Nicole, and I want her back."